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Sandberg Deserves Hall

June 19, 1994|By Bill Conlin, Philadelphia Daily News.

Ryne Sandberg goes to Cooperstown on the first ballot. The sniping at the prematurely retired Cubs second baseman's Hall of Fame credentials already has begun. Stat freak Bill James should take some of these guys to lunch and explain the facts of baseball. Besides having the fourth-best power numbers of all the second basemen currently in Cooperstown, Ryno The Magnificent is by far the best fielding second baseman of all time. And he did it playing on grass and dirt. Sandberg had great range, textbook footwork on the various double-play pivots, a great arm and a rare sixth sense for making the correct play. Name me a better two-hole hitter in the game's history.